I’ve written an article a day for 14 days straight — 8 benefits I’ve reaped so far

I’ve written an article for 14 days straight.

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My only regret is I hadn’t started it earlier. Perhaps on New Year’s day as a New Year’s resolution.

I’ve made a commitment to write for at least 6 months straight following this pace. So I’ve only just started.

However, I’ve already seen lots of benefits.

Here are 8 of them, and I hope it’ll inspire you in some small way.

1. It’s made me read better

I pay more attention to what I’m reading.

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Because I know I’m going to have to write something about it.

I’ve even tried to access recesses in my mind that haven’t been accessed in a while.

I remember I had read a bit in a book 7 years ago about self-directed altruism.

I knew which book I read, but I didn’t know where it was.

After some perseverance, I did find it. And I was able to re-read the article and found that actually some of my memories didn’t serve me correctly. I also didn’t get the point right the first time around. It led me to re-read it and learned lots more about the topic.

I saw new linkages in the chapter the author was writing, and found new logic to his thought.

The fruit of that is this article:

How I overcame “self-directed altruism” — or “helping others to help me feel better”.

Now, if I have to revisit that part of my mind, I can access it much more quickly. But also, I can just refer to this article.

I also know that I’ll be more alert in the next book I read.

2. I’ve become more creative

I wrote an article about the word ‘melancholy’.

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My inspiration was simply seeing the word in my Ancient Greek textbook. It made a note about the meaning of the word’s parts, Melania and choly. They mean ‘black’ and ‘bile’ respectively.

I thought I could write an article about that!

I can do my research and find something interesting about that word.

And so I did.

I found that the word had lot of background in the Renaissance. John Milton, one of my favorite poets, wrote a whole poem about it.

I’m pretty sure I had read that poem before, but I’ve read it in a fresh light because I’m coming at it from a new perspective. I’m approaching the poem for a specific reason (‘I want to know something about melancholy’), instead of stumbling upon it by flicking through a collection of Milton’s poems (‘Let’s see what this poem is about’).

I also knew I had to write an article about it so I read it more attentively, and found new things that stimulated my mind.

I also learned about a painting by Albert Durer, a line by Shakespeare, and a whole book by Robert Burton on melancholy.

You can find that article here:

‘Melancholy’ — 3 things about this word that’ll inspire you.

If you’re a writer, how has writing made you more creative (if at all)?

3. I write faster

So far in this article, there are around 300 words. It’s only taken me about 8 minutes to write them.

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I started off with maybe 1,000 words an hour, so more like 133 words for 8 minutes. (Obviously, it still depends on what I write.)

Granted, I used to write for a living so I learned a lot of skills there. I learned a load of shortcuts that would help me.

Recently, I’ve become a software developer too so I actually use vim to write my articles. You can find an article about that here.

(If there’s popular demand, I’ll write a step-by-step guide for non-technical writers to use vim too.)

In Philosophy, there are different kinds of knowledge. Some have to do with grasping a concept. But one kind of knowledge is the knowledge of ability, the ‘know-how’.

There’s nothing that can replace doing it.

A Mathematician once (causticly) said that those who never count will never learn how to.

It’s the same thing with writing. Nothing replaces constant practice.

4. I speak with more clarity.

I’ve always struggled with speaking.

Partly, English wasn’t my received language, or ‘mother-tongue’ — although it practically functions as my first language these days.

So when I speak, I know it’s not 100% correct, and I still think in my first language at times. Especially when it comes to counting and Maths.

But I’ve found that when I speak, I have a better idea of what I want to say. The words come to me more quickly. I try to put things in a different way and play with words.

I have a slight taste of what people in the past must have experienced when they had great clarity of thought. They spoke clearly and engagingly. They could catch subtleties in language. They could sit for hours listening to a talk.

Have you ever read a speech by someone from the 19th century? Take Abraham Lincoln, for example:

“It will readily occur to you that I cannot, in half an hour, notice all the things that so able a man as Judge Douglas can say in an hour and a half; and I hope, therefore, if there be anything that he has said upon which you would like to hear something from me, but which I omit to comment upon, you will bear in mind that it would be expecting an impossibility for me to cover his whole ground”

Imagine listening to that today. That is on Saturday Night Live. Or even that in a speech by President Joe Biden.

(If you tried to read through that, well done. You may leave a comment and be commemorated in the Hall of Fame.)

Most people at the live venue would fall asleep. Most TV viewers would switch channels.

Yet people found this sort of language just natural in their days.

They even responded with great enthusiasm and emotion.

I reflected on this in an article:

The audience who listened to Abraham Lincoln for 7 hours in 1854–3 things we can learn from them.

I hope that article reflects some of this newfound clarity (and let me know if not!)

5. My typing speed increased

This may seem like a small one.

Photo by Kaitlyn Baker on Unsplash

But let’s do some calculation. Let’s say I have to write 2,000 words for my job in a week.

Let’s say my words-per-minute (wpm) typing speed is 100 wpm, which is not half bad.

It would take 20 minutes to write that amount.

In a month, that would be 30 * 20 = 600 minutes = 10 hours.

In a year, it would be 10 hours * 12 = 120 hours.

But if I increase that speed to 120 wpm, I would only need 2000/120 = 16.67 minutes.

In a month, that would be 30*16.67 = 500 minutes. So I’ve saved 100 minutes per month.

That’s 1200 minutes = 20 hours per year.

You get the idea.

This exercise was inspired by this chart:

Reference: xkcd

The idea is to automate things you do regularly, or find ways to shave off time.

And that seems to be happening to me.

6. I’ve become more motivated

Having a goal I try to achieve has been highly rewarding.

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Many people have said that a daily habit that gives you a sense of accomplishment changes the rest of what you do.

That’s why in the military, one thing they emphasize is that you must make your bed in the morning.

How you start the day, to some degree, determines how you approach the rest of the day.

I do make my bed, but now I also write.

In fact, I even look forward to writing down some of my thoughts and sharing it with my readers, old or new.

I’ve become more motivated.

7. I learn from other people

Some readers have responded to my articles sharing their thoughts.

In an article about Pergamum (see below), I encouraged the reader to give examples of words they use that ‘hyperlink’ the past.

• The word ‘parchment’ is a hyperlink to the past.

A reader mentioned Manilla folders, which I didn’t know about.

In another article, I described how G. K. Chesterton used imagery (see below). A reader referenced V. C. Schwab and I looked up her works.

• We don’t tell stories anymore — 3 things to learn from a Charles Dickens expert

We all learn from one another.

8. I’ve slept later but better

It’s not all smooth sailing though.

Photo by Sander Sammy on Unsplash

I did find that my bedtimes have got pushed back, as I tried to stick to my one article per day schedule even on some busy days.

But even then, I found that when I did get to sleep, I slept better, knowing that it was for a good reason I stayed up a bit later. What’s more, I could look forward to better sleep the following day!

I also found that I looked for workarounds. I learned about the concept of ‘content batching’, i.e. outlining several articles in one sitting. Instead of limiting yourself to one article per sitting and having to create it from start to finish, you outline several and leave them at a 30–70% completion rate.

As the saying goes, necessity is the mother of all invention. (I believe it is due to Plato.)

But I do need to schedule my time better and guard my sleep. I need to do this sustainably.

Which point will you take away?

The most important thing in learning a skill is, of course, to put it into practice.

For me, my biggest takeaway is point 2. I’m excited to get more of my creative juices flowing and be brought to new levels of inspiration.

Which one is yours?

Check out my other articles on diverse topics:

• Want to write more clearly? 6 tips from a book that “changed the career” of a FTSE100 company content writer.
• What actually happened as the Titanic sank
• Python and Plato (1) — Using Python to Introduce the Great Philosopher